What to Lose: The Idol of Common Sense

A Series by Jill Holler – Part 5

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.“Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Luke 5:27-28

A Radical Response

Following Jesus tends to defy common sense.

It often requires that we examine the two paths before us and then choose the one that seems most illogical.

Most certainly, there was nothing logical about Levi, a wealthy tax collector, walking away from everything he knew in order to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus had no home, no place to sleep, and no earthly riches to offer. Yet when He said, “Follow me,” that is exactly what Levi did.

All it took was two words from the Savior, and Levi immediately turned away from the life he knew. There was no deliberation, no hint of regret. Just simple obedience and an overpowering sense that there was only one thing to do: follow the footsteps of Jesus.

How radical was his response!

For how often do people walk away from wealth, comfort, and earthly security to embrace a life of uncertainty that would lead them to places unknown?

And inscribed throughout the pages of the Bible are countless illustrations of God calling people to do things that defied logic.

Here are just a few examples:

When Abraham was 75, God told him to leave his country, family, and everything familiar to head to an unknown land. When he was 99, God told him that he and his wife would have a baby (and he fell face down laughing).

From Egypt, God led his people out of slavery and to the edge of the Red Sea. In their minds, they despaired that they would either drown or be killed by Pharaoh’s approaching army. Moses’ advice to them defied all logic: Be still and do not fear.

When faced with the fierce Midianite army, God surprisingly told Gideon to downsize his troops from around 32,000 to 300. And the weapons of God’s choosing? Trumpets, glass jars, and torches.

Similarly, God told Joshua and his army to pick up their trumpets and capture the city of Jericho. For extra added power, He also allowed them to shout!

When the Israelite army faced the Philistines, God chose an inexperienced shepherd boy named David to kill a giant with a stone and save his people.

And in his most wondrous act of all time, God sent His own son, Jesus Christ, to live as a servant and then die as a criminal–in order to pay the price for our sins and open up the door to eternal life.

Perhaps He is calling you to cut back on your hours at work, so that you can spend time teaching your children about God.

Maybe He is trying to set your heart free from the desire for security, so that you can go a thousand miles away from home to reach the lost.

Perhaps He is telling you that if only you will trust in Him, He will provide you everything you need.

Whatever He is calling you to do, it most likely lies outside the realm of ordinary and reasonable. It will probably take you out of your comfort zone and require that you let go of what everyone else thinks.

But it is the greatest thing you can do. It will fill you with purpose and peace that can only come from following the will of God.

What Will We Do?

God is calling to us: “Follow me.”

What will we do?

Will we step out in radical obedience? Or will we keep walking on the safe, predictable path that keeps us in our comfort zone and never requires too much?

The choice is ours. He won’t force our obedience. But He is waiting to fill us up with His peace and His power if we simply put Him first.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Judges 7:2

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. Exodus 6:20